The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-09-14
GLADSTONE DURING THE REBELLION

about the famous but so far invisible family
whose name it bears
GLADSTONE DURING THE REBELLION.
The Causes that Impeiied Him to Favor the
South and Its Cause.
London Special TO Chicago Times.
The sneer of the London Times at Mr.. Glad
stone IN connection with the Invitation to attend
the Constitutional centennial at Philadelphia is
bitter, because it is founded truth. Eve
should hardly select Mr.. Blaine to represent
the United States If an English celebration were
in question" is well designed to remind the
American people that in the hour of their agony
Mr.. Gladstone was as open a foe of the North as
Mr.. Blaine is OF the despotism of England to-
ward Ireland. The moment is opportune for q
perfectly candid statement of Mr.. Gladstone's
opinions concerning the American Union
during the civil war and his conduct toward it.
There is no reason why the whole truth should
not be told 1t ought to be told fearlessly and
at once in justice to Mr.. Gladstone. When it
is fully known and comprehepded. no American.
not condemned to blind fanaticism, really
censure him. OF Gladstone it must be said, in
sense higher than it is true of any other states
man of any age that he is an intellectual and
BILE for his birth or his inheritance. Gladstone's
father was English trader who in
Guided human beings among his chat
ties Sir John Gladstone followed commerce
with the love of sailor for the He was
one of the nine-tenths of the English nation
who believe that thes highest object of states
mauship under the British is to make
money under the British flag Real property is
not the only entail under British institutions.
Most men in the House of Lords there be-
cause their fathers made it compulsory that
they should keep their estates and inevitable
that they should transmit their opinions. Glad
stone was born with prejudices, becoming the
son of a slave owner and trader. He made his
entrance into public life-now fifty five years
aeo-with the legitimately acquired baggage
of Tory. Almost his first speech of
note was against the emancipation of slaves.
1t is quibbled for him that he opposed only
immediate and unconditional emancipation.
The fact is, he was speaking for the vested
rights of men of his fathers class. He wanted
compensation for their human property, and
500, 900 appropriated to settle the
claims Of the British shareholders of Jamaica
This moral inheritance aroused a kind of di-
minishng entail upon Gladstone's mind. and he
was not free from it when the great conflict be-
tween the South and the North reached its ac-
tual crisis. He did. indeed. array himself with
fine periods upon the side of human freedom.
So the ministry of which he member
rayed itself upon the side of strict neutrality
But the old slave traficklne, commercial in
heritance was subtly active in the of Sir
John Gladstone as the hatred Of republican in
situations was energetic in the conduct of the
Russell Cabinet. The man instinctivelv sympa-
thized with the South. The ministry openly
boasted that the bubble of repubiicanism was
burst"
A second reason why it was certain that Mr..
Gladstone should sympathiZe with the South is
to be found in his political economy. Whatever
he believes he honestly. vehemeuty and power
fully advocates. The free-trade progress of Eng
land rested chiefly on its annually swelling COM
merce with the Southern States. To keep the
South purely agricultural country was essen
tial tc the manufacture and commerce of Great
Britain. The development of the protective
policy in America was distinctively
Northern. It was accepted in England as dan
gerous TO British interests The Southern poll
ticians were without exception free-traders. It
was much the interest of the siave-owners to
keep native manufactures ont of the Republic as
it was the interest of England that they should
land in exchange for the cotton of the South
was all that either wanted It enough to
insure perpetual content III Great Britain and
perpetual pol political supremacy for , the
In Gladstone's judgment the Northern advocates
of the protective policy we're heretics, returning
to false dogma which time had exploded, and
for which, as he it in the creed of Manches-
ter, not solitary sound argument could be ad-
duced. Therefore he considered the northern
statesmen inferior. intellectually. to the free
traders of the South. Intellectual conviction as
we'll selfish interest allied him with them.
History has justified his fears. The cotton fam
inc which ensued upon the opening of HOSTILE
ties ruined for years the manufacturing centers
of England devoted to the cotton plant, and with
the growth of American manufactures and the
destruction of the English monopoly the British
toiler has remained one of the poorest paid and
worst housed of bis kind on the civilized globe.
There was third reason why Mr.. Gladstone.
as well as the mass of the reading public in En-
gland, should have sympathiZed with the South.
It is instructive in human nature to be on the
side of the probable winner. All the news agen-
cies of the time were on the side of the South.
1t was British interest that the South should
win. The new collectors were only British
agents. There was no Atlantic cable. The
London press was unit on the side of the Brit
sh manufacturer. The correspondents knew
too well what news was welcome, and they sent
it. conspiracy for falsehood now incredible
existed by common connivauce of publishers
and correspondents. Mr.. Gladstone read what
all his countrymen read. and he believed the
London Times when he said that Jefferson Davis
had created an army and navy and q nation.
How worthy of that journal now to taunt him
with the folly of having credited its own col
umns. Was Mr.. Gladstone to blame because he
could not discern this conspiracy of the English
press TO distort. deny and delay the facts of the
American WARE If there to be another great
state the American continent, and that state
were to build its foundation the closest pos
sible commercial alliance with Great Britain
was the Chancellor of the EncheQuer to be
blind, and deaf and dumb in it's behalfa Above
all else, Mr.. Gladstone is an Englishman. To
him 1t was patriotism to sympathize with the
South that was to send England cotton and buy
only English manufactures 1t was more than
patriotism: it was common sense. Moreover, he
was courageous and straightforward in SO doing
at time when his colleagues in the Cabinet
were secretly exerting every influence at their
command to injure the North. while officially
they were uttering the language of diplomatic
by pocrisy.
These three reasons-hs family history repre-
sented in his instincts; his free-trade theory de-
manding the American market for English man
ana MS uepenOenco on sell pOlluLoQ
wells of information about the progress
of events-would have made any man in Mr.
Gladstone's situation at that time
a sympathizer with the South. He has, more
over. frankly acknowledged that he was
ignorant as well preiudiced When the truth
is all told, it is clear that Mr.. Gladstone is pre-
eminently the Englishman to be invited to the
constitutional centennial at Philadelphia. For
he is the first EnglIshman to own that he
wronged the republic through ignorance He is
the first to apply to British politics the prnci-
plies of equality and freedom which the expert
ence of the republic has approved for all the
world